This note
is for community leaders, official or not.
Sometimes when you’re sitting
around the table (virtually or social distancing of course) the synergy of the
room inspires ideas and innovation.
Such is
the case with this tale....It should be noted that on December 31, 2019 I
retired as the Police Chief of our City of Hollister, California. I was
enjoying my retirement until one day I took a call asking me if
I was possibly interested in helping out the local county (San Benito County,
California) with the COVID-19 crisis as a Public Information Officer (I did
that before in my prior job many years).I said yes......thus this is how this story
begins.
But lets fast forward a bit. California is sheltering in place. My county has been sheltering since March 17th, 2020. We upgraded and extended the SIP order on March 31, 2020........
It’s
April 19, 2020 and I am sitting with my co-workers in a boardroom after a Zoom
meeting. Now we are weeks into the Novel Coronavirus / COVID-19 pandemic and
these meetings are now the routine. Occasionally though, after a meeting we all
find ourselves in the same room together. Weird that something that we have
taken for granite all these years, human interaction, is so rare now. So I
begin talking about a problem I am anticipating that I think will soon surface
for our little cadre.
Let me
set the stage; we were on the eve of a new Public Health Order coming to
fruition from our Public Health Officer. In each county in California, the
Public Health Officer has the authority, by law to do Public Health Orders.
This new order would follow two other others for Sheltering in Place (SIP).
This particular order was one that other communities had already adopted a form
of. The new order will be a face covering requirement (for public places,
essential workers, etc.).
Thinking
about the optics of such an order is important. After all, this order would
require people to cover their face with cloth of some sort. There were health
implications, economic implications and for some possible Constitutional
questions.
The health
implications were complicated. The CDC and Surgeon General had made previous
statements of the ineffectiveness of cloth masks. Then the CDC released this
guidance on face coverings. Explaining the
research was cumbersome because of the previous edicts. However because the
guidance/recommendations made sense to most people, it became easier to
understand the theory behind it.
The
economic implications were right in front of us. Many people were sheltering in
place; those same people were not working. Many filed for unemployment but were
still waiting. Many others were small business owners and found the process for
a small business loan or paycheck protection plans slow and difficult to
navigate. Many people simply did not have income.
Others
still were upset that the government was attempting to tell them what they had
to do and what to wear. For many, this wasn’t an issue. But for many others,
this was a tremendous and possibly constitutional issue. I completely get that perspective.
Folks, nobody wants to wear a face covering on purpose (excluding obvious religious and cultural customs of course) that doesn't already have too. That's the other implication of a face covering / mask order. They are simply not comfortable.
Enter the
problem - If we enacted a face covering requirement, even a simple one. There
were community members who were going to be overlooked and out in the cold to
comply because economically it wasn’t possible or other related issues.
So
knowing the work group I was part of did not have the bandwidth and realizing
that the County I worked for most likely did not have the resources anywhere. I
lightbulb flashed in my noggin as I was talking to my friends.
Why
couldn't we have a service organization help us? They are really good at people
motivation and during this crisis probably have the time to assist. My first
thoughts were how could this benefit the community. How could we put something
together that really helps as much as possible?
I had
heard of and seen many community members making homemade face coverings/masks
after the CDC guidance came out. Most of the time, these folks were charging just
a few dollars or giving the face coverings away to community members. I
wondered if we offered to help pay for the materials and preparation, how many
of these face coverings could be produced by community members.
I thought
that we should provide the face covering for free to those community members
that could not afford or did not have the means to make one for themselves. I
figured that one COVID -19 patient in our local community hospital would cost
thousands of dollars for treatment. Imagine if that patient wasn’t covered by
insurance or simply could not afford to pay the medical bills. That medical
treatment would be covered by our tax dollars. A simple investment into face
coverings might reduce instances of transmission, thus the possibility of our
precious tax dollars being used for medical treatment charges would be reduced.
The economy of scale was truly pragmatic in this example.
Along
with helping our local residents with getting face coverings, this program also
had the benefit of directly stimulating the local economy in a small way.
So
searched around a little and inquired at the local Chamber of Commerce. The
Chamber of Commerce really liked the idea. Loved the idea of helping the
community and also.....helping the community.
The
county I worked for allocated $5,000 and the City nearby (Hollister) allocated
$5,000 for the program. The Chamber of Commerce put the outreach together,
built the program and tracking for receivables. We put out a joint press
release here on a Sunday.
In less
than 24 hrs. all $10,000 plus another $2,000 more from two other donors was
gone. All of it allocated to community seamstresses and groups that were making
face coverings. Some also just wanted to donate the face coverings. The Chamber
of Commerce told me that they received calls from all over the nation asking
for face coverings.
So now we are
in the middle of it, the order is pending being released. We are now considering because of demand and available community help, additional funding and up scaling the
operation a bit.
If your
community is going to mandate a face coverings order / ordinance than what are you going to do? Are you a leader? Are you a problem solver? Have you considered
looking at it from another’s perspective? All questions you should consider.
So my advice
is to let your community get involved in solving the problem. They want to help
you. They want to be involved. They also want to get back to work. If their efforts in helping the
community with this project possibly provide a path back to normality and
getting people back to work, they will want to help you.
So
leaders, go lead, give it a shot. People want to help you.
